Appealing to female car buyers, part I

''The reason women become so successful is we're interested in treating women right when they come in. I don't mean to sound stereotypical, but women have so much more empathy for customers.''

Kitty Van Bortel, owner of Van Bortel Subaru and Van Bortel Ford (source: New York Times). Van Bortel Subaru averages around $ 43 million in sales and has been ranked the top-selling franchise of Subaru America for three years straight.

A lesson from pop culture

 “If Men are from Mars and Women are from Venus, and you can speak Venutian, the world can be yours.” Woman account for 65% of all new car purchases but 74% of women feel misunderstood by automotive marketers. If dealerships focused more on connecting with female consumers their opportunities for increased revenues in the sales, service, parts, and accessories departments are endless.

Just like Mel Gibson’s character in “What Women Want” discovered, female car buyers, have enormous buying power, but think very differently when making purchase decisions.  This is particularly true when it comes to buying a car. Rather than alienating women who shop at your dealership here are four ways to better communicate with the other half that influence 80% of all new car purchases and 42% of car accessories sales.

Hire More Women?  Look at the statistics…

50% of car buyers would prefer to deal with a female, according to dealix.com. Breaking it down by gender we see that 39% of women and 11% of men would prefer to deal with a woman in a dealership.

Based purely on that statistic alone dealerships with a balanced workforce automatically have an advantage when selling new cars, agree?  But surprisingly dealix.com reported that the dealership workforce is comprised of only 7% of women.  The majority of that 7% do not hold positions of influence during the buying process.

Would women in managerial roles (i.e. Sales, F&I, Service) increase your prospect-to-customer conversion?

Women typically have a natural inclination to be attentive to the needs of others and more personable. They are more likely to listen to your customers and provide a more comfortable experience. When building customer relationships many dealerships struggle with establishing trust and loyalty. Women do this intuitively. A saleswoman will listen to your customer and then sell them car their perfect car with accessories to match, based on their wants and needs.

Part II: Investing in Sensitivity and Female friendly sales Training for your Sales People

Learn more about the selling system by Insignia Group used to present accessories to female buyers!